All the build-up to the third Ashes Test; Rohit Sharma clobbers third ODI double ton.. follow all the cricket news on-the-go.

Mark Wood took 1-21 from four overs as he continued his return from injury but the England Lions fell to a six-run defeat to the Perth Scorchers.

David Willey made 37 off 24 balls and Michael Klinger hit 39 off 33 balls as the Scorchers made 148-5 from their 20 overs.

In response Nick Gubbin made 68, as Mitchell Johnson returned expensive figures of 2-40, but after the Lions' opener was run out a collapse saw the visitors fall just short in their run chase, as they were bowled out for 142 with three balls of their innings remaining.

Andrew White has been appointed Ireland's chair of national men's selectors ahead of a historic next few months for the country.

Having been granted full member status by the International Cricket Council earlier this year, Ireland will play their first Test against Pakistan at Malahide next May.

White, who featured in the 2007 and 2011 World Cups, played 61 one-day internationals and 18 T20Is and will now oversee and work alongside the national selection panel.

"Cricket Ireland is entering a challenging but hugely-exciting period in its history," the 37-year-old said. "I am looking forward to working closely with (coach) Graham Ford, his staff, selectors and those in the high-performance environment as we aim to meet the challenges head on."

Chris Gayle hit 18 sixes on his way to an unbeaten 146 off 69 balls for Rangpur Riders against Dhaka Dynamites to create Twenty20 cricket history in the Bangladesh Premier League final.

Gayle, who was dropped by Shakib Al Hasan on 22, broke the record he set when he smashed 17 sixes in an unbeaten 175 for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in the Indian Premier League's 2013 final.

The 38-year-old Jamaican's knock also took him past 11,000 runs in the shortest format of the game and made him the first player to score 20 centuries in T20 cricket.

Teenage batsman Kiran Carlson has signed a three-year
contract extension with Glamorgan, keeping him at the club
until the end of the 2020 season.

“It’s great to commit
to Glamorgan for the next three years and nice to have that security and be
able to concentrate on my game so I can look to progress to the next level over
the coming seasons,” said 19-year-old Carlson.

"It’s going to be a busy period in my life with cricket
and university but I can’t wait to get stuck in and kick on. The hard work has
already started and we can take a lot of positives from last season into next
year. There’s a lot of young talent at the Club. I’ve grown up
playing age group cricket with quite a few of the boys so it’s nice for us to
come together in a professional set up and hopefully together we can bring
success and silverware back to Wales.”

Cook, who will become the first Englishman to reach 150 Test caps when he tries to help Joe Root's side come back from being 2-0 down with three to play, is convinced England have not helped themselves.

England have been beset by off-field problems before and during the tour, which began with Ben Stokes' arrest outside a nightclub in Bristol in September. Then two episodes, six weeks apart but played out in the same Perth bar, attracted further negative publicity.

New Zealand clinched a convincing 240-run victory in the second Test against the West Indies to seal a 2-0 series win.

Spinner Mitchell Santner claimed two wickets in two balls to wrap up the simple win but there was further bad news for the visitors as batsman Sunil Ambris broke his arm after being struck by a short ball from Neil Wagner and has ben ruled out of the upcoming one-day international series.

The 41-year-old, who represented Gloucestershire during his playing career, spent time at the Kia Oval during the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

Taylor, currently working with England's Under-19 squad in South Africa, said: "I'm really excited to be coming back to Surrey and working in a job where I've got such a broad brief to create a culture of strong fielding all throughout the club."

Surrey director of cricket Alec Stewart added: "Fielding has always been a massive part of the game and something I feel is under coached. To this end, I'm really pleased that we've been able to get Chris back at Surrey.

"He's the best fielding coach I've seen and made an immediate impact the first time he was with us."

A first class game between Windward Islands and Guyana ended in a tie in the WICB Professional Cricket League Regional 4 Day Tournament - the first time in 152-year history of the West Indies' first-class championship that a match has ended in a tie.

With the scores level, Shane Shillingford took the final wicket for Windwards Islands, trapping Anthony Bramble lbw, to ensure that a low-scoring encounter ended honours even.

Atif Mashal, chairman of the Afghanistan Cricket Board, has announced that an agreement has been reached for Afghanistan to play India in their first ever Test match. The date and venue of the match is yet to be decided.

South Africa will host Zimbabwe for the inaugural four-day Test, beginning on Boxing Day, with the ICC trialling the idea through until the 2019 World Cup, but New Zealand bowler Trent Boult does not think shorter Tests are required to boost the appeal of the longest format...

"I love Test cricket, so I'd love to see it stay as it always has," Boult was quoted as saying by stuff.co.nz. "In terms of shortening it to let it become more aggressive, I don't think there's any need. There's other formats for that sort of thing.

"You want to have an even competition or contest between bat and ball. There's some good wickets going around at the moment and the balls aren't moving, so that's what I'd love to see [a contest] - I wouldn't want it any shorter to encourage aggression."

As we mentioned, Ross Taylor's hundred moved with level with Kane Williamson and the late Martin Crowe, Taylor's mentor, and the Kiwi batsmen spoke emotionally about his relationship with Crowe at the close of play.

Ross Taylor moved level with Martin Crowe and Kane Williamson at the top of the list of New Zealand's record Test century-makers. The Black Caps batsmen hit his 17th hundred in Hamilton as the hosts closed in on a victory over Windies that would clinch the series.

Ben Duckett has been suspended from playing for the remainder of the England Lions training camp in Australia and given a final written warning but will not return home early, the ECB has announced.

Duckett was withdrawn from England's Ashes warm-up game in Perth this weekend after an incident in a bar, in which he poured a drink over the head of a senior player, widely believed to be James Anderson.

Australia coach DARREN LEHMANN has hinted that all-rounder Mitchell Marsh will play in the third Ashes Test in Perth - Peter Handscomb looks the player most at risk of losing his place.

"Other people might be unlucky to miss out but Mitchell fills the role we need for this particular Test match. As a batter he was in some good form. But we needed his bowling as well. Now he's bowling, we can consider him. He deserves his chance."

Shakib Al Hasan has been named Bangladesh's new Test
captain, with the all-rounder replacing Mushfiqur Rahim in the role.

"We can't really tell you the
exact reason but we felt that Mushfiqur [Rahim] needs to focus on his batting
and remain pressure-free," BCB president Nazmul Hassan said.

Bangladesh have lost seven of their
nine Tests this year, including back-to-back hammerings in South Africa in the
autumn – the Tigers defeated by 333 runs in Potchefstroom and an innings and
254 runs in Bloemfontein.

Moeen Ali says the England squad are aware that their off-field behaviour needs to improve after the latest in a series of incidents that have thwarted their Ashes tour saw Lions' batsmen Ben Duckett provisionally suspended pending an internal investigation. MORE HERE

Canterbury Cricket are hoping Ben Stokes' first match at
their main venue at Hagley Oval on Sunday will help boost the size of what are
traditionally small crowds at New Zealand's domestic one-day competition.

The 26-year-old, who is still banned from playing for
England pending the outcome of an investigation into an incident in Bristol in
September, will make his third appearance for Canterbury against Northern Districts
in Christchurch on Sunday.

The match is arguably the most visible of the games he has
played so far, with it being the first for the team at their main home ground
in the centre of Christchurch, the second-largest city in New Zealand and
Stokes's birthplace. It is also at the weekend, which traditionally attracts
larger crowds than those played during the week.

Canterbury Cricket chief executive Jez Curwin was loathe to
predict that the England all-rounder's presence would provide a massive boost
in attendance, but expected a larger than usual crowd.

"I am a little bit nervous to say that we are going to
get 1,000 people," Curtin told Reuters. “But I would like to suspect that
we would get more numbers than normal. Traditionally attendances are pretty low
for all the teams in the (one day competition) and if you get about 200 people you're
pretty happy. I'd like to think we would overstep those numbers but to make a
prediction and set a figure I'd be nervous to do that."

The 49-year-old will take over the national side from
December 20, meaning he will take charge of the team for the T20 games that end
their current tour in India.

Hathurusingha resigned in October as Bangladesh's coach
after guiding the national team through their most successful period in his
three years in charge, masterminding Test wins over England and Australia.

Hathurusingha played 26 Tests and 35 one-day internationals
for Sri Lanka before becoming the team's assistant coach under Trevor Bayliss -
a job he lost in 2010.

The Sri Lanka post has been vacant since South African
Graham Ford quit in June. Nic Pothas has been the team’s interim coach.

The former Australia captain and national-record runscorer
can empathise with Root on both counts. Ponting lost three Ashes series as
captain - as well as leading his team to a whitewash win over England in 2006/7
- and with the bat, he acknowledges he too had to battle against some of the
same technical difficulties which have given Root a headache of late.

Asked how it may affect the Yorkshireman if the rest of this
winter's series unravels as a 5-0 defeat, as some are predicting, Ponting
advised the captain will need his senior players to come to the fore.

"If it does happen, I think he's got a great challenge
on his hands to bring the group back together," said Ponting. "He
needs all of his senior players to make sure they're doing everything they can.

"He needs (Stuart) Broad, he needs (James) Anderson, he
needs (Alastair) Cook - he needs all these guys right behind him to drag all
the young blokes along and let them know that this is what Ashes cricket is all
about."

Mark Wood and Jake Ball are opening the bowling for England after the tourists make 314-9, thanks largely to Tom Curran's unbeaten 77, on day one of their two-day tour match against Cricket Australia XI.

India will look to shed their “poor travellers” tag in 2018,
starting in South Africa, says head coach Ravi Shastri.

India sit top the Test rankings having sealed their
record-equalling ninth consecutive series win on Wednesday, six of which came
at home and only one - against West Indies in the Caribbean - outside of Asia.

Sterner tests await Virat Kohli's men next year when they
also travel to England and Australia, where conditions will not be as conducive
to their spinners as it is at home, and the moving ball will probe their
batting technique.

"This team is looking good and they have their
priorities in place. They're hungry to prove themselves home and away,"
Shastri told the Times of India newspaper. "It's often been argued that
India are poor travellers. We want to be the team that helped change this
perception and this is the year to do it."

"Frankly, we're not too hooked on to this 'home and
away' thing, where a lot of chatter goes on about conditions that aren't too
familiar. For instance, once you've played a test match in Kolkata, how long
does it take before you play another test there? Two years? Sometimes three?
It's the same as an overseas tour. So that mindset is quite pass. In this day
and age, wherever you go, it's home. You just got to walk in there and
perform."